Ayala’s career night powers Nixon to a win over Zapata

By Garrett Kroeger, Laredo Morning Times

Updated
11:04 pm CDT, Tuesday, September 25, 2018

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Ayala’s career night powers Nixon to a win over Zapata

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Early on this season, senior quarterback J.C. Ayala had only 77 yards passing as Nixon leaned as it often does on its rushing attack. Yet Friday night at Shirley Field, he was ready to put together the best performance of his career through the air.

Ayala led the unbeaten Mustangs to a 28-7 victory over the visiting Zapata Hawks. He helped revitalize a passing attack that so far this season has struggled.

Nixon is now heading into District 29-6A play next week as the team will take on United South next Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Shirley Field. Along with Eagle Pass, they are the only teams from the league to go 4-0 through the non-district schedule.

“It feels pretty good (to finish 4-0 in on-district play),” Ayala said. “But we aren’t worried about that right now. It’s the end of the preseason. We have to get ready for district and make sure we are ready for (United) South.”

Ayala finished the night 8 of 15 for 169 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for eight yards on eight carries. The signal-caller’s performance puts his passing statistics at 14 of 42 for 246 yards on the season — eclipsing his 9 of 21 for 184 yards through seven games last year.

Through the first three games this season, he had only a 28.6 completion percentage.

“Zapata did a great job putting us in a bind running wise to where we had no choice but to throw the ball,” head coach Antonio Villalon said. “Our boys did a great job in pass protection, (Ayala) had his best game ever, and everybody chipped in to make the passing game something to where we were able to have a nice offensive night.”

Although Ayala had a career night through the air, Nixon still relied on its run game to get into the endzone. The Mustangs ran the ball 50 times for 179 yards and three touchdowns. Sophomore back Pablo Tovar led Nixon on the ground with 81 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries.

Zapata scored first after driving 70 yards on nine plays, which was capped off with a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback J.D. Guerra.

However, Nixon would respond with a 85-yard, 10-play drive of its own. The Mustangs would finish it with a 4-yard touchdown run by Tovar. During the drive, Ayala got rolling early as his first pass was a 15-yard completion to senior running Bernardo Cruz. Two pass plays later, he would complete his longest of the season — a 52-yard attempt to junior back Heriberto Garcia — to tie it at 7 apiece.

On Zapata’s second drive, Nixon sophomore defensive back Jaden Lopez picked off Guerra. Several plays later, the Mustangs would take their first lead of the night thanks to a 3-yard run by Cruz, putting Nixon up 14-7 with 9:58 remaining in the second quarter. The Mustangs would go into halftime up by that score.

Nixon would begin with the ball to start the second half and built upon its lead. Ayala’s arm would get the Mustangs near the red zone as he hit Garcia for a 45 yard gain.

“Those (long pass) plays were based on matchups,” Ayala said. “We knew (Garcia) was taller than (Zapata’s) corner and we knew he had the speed. Everybody knew he was going to get open. I just had to trust him.”

A few plays later, Tovar would score his second touchdown of the night from one yard out with 6:50 left in the third quarter.

The Mustangs would score one final time as Ayala threw his first touchdown pass of the season to sophomore Maximus Marchan — a 14-yard strike with 4:37 remaining in the game.

While Nixon played its first balanced offense game of the year, its defense made some plays too. The Mustangs picked off Zapata three times — once by Lopez and two by junior defensive back Hector Rogerio. The Nixon defense only allowed 71 total yards.

“Our defensive was sound and did a great job,” Villalon said. “After the first drive, our defense shutout Zapata. The boys were very discipline.

“We are very happy with the growth out of our defensive backs. We just need to make sure they continue it and keep humbled hearts so they can keep improving as they will be tested dramatically within our 6A district.”

In other action, Cigarroa was the lone other LISD team to compete Friday after Martin lost to Alexander Thursday.

The Toros loss 16-10 to Crystal City at press time as the game had been delayed due to lightning. Cigarroa entered the game at 0-3 this season and on a six-game losing streak dating back to last year.